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Photos from my vacation to Michigan (explained later)

Why yes, it has been quite a while since I’ve blogged. I told you all that once I missed my first entry, the blog would be doomed to just get worse and worse, until I stopped blogging altogether. People keep asking me if I’ve given up on blogging, and I keep explaining that I haven’t given up, I just haven’t blogged in a very long time. In addition to this being my first post in a long while, this is my inaugural entry from work. I probably won’t write much about work, but I’m here, so I suppose you’re getting a taste of my day at work :-P.

I’ve been fairly busy over the past few weeks, I think. I’ve already explained how horribly my memory of the previous day is, so my memory of the past weeks is laughable. As of right now, I can only think of three things worth mentioning in my blog, and my confidence of being able to remember them in a few minutes is so low that I’ve written them down as a reminder. Thankfully, though, I’m cool enough to use my phone to keep a schedule of some things I do (to remind me I have to do them), so I can use that to spark my memory of some things I’ve done. (I can hear you all sighing with relief.) I’ll work from oldest to most recent.

Monday, August 02

After work, I had to go over to my grandmother’s house to physically set up a computer I’d ordered and configured for her. I had to leave work early to transfer files from her old computer to the new computer, prior to going there to set it up. The old computer was majorly f-ed up, so that took longer than it should have, but I’m a genius, so I got it done. I had a little get-together to attend after that, so I didn’t want to stick around too long, but my grandmother can never seem to resist an opportunity to give me food, so I had some pie and ice cream, and then moved on to my next event for the evening.

A friend, Sara Buffie, was having some people over to her house for a casual get-together/bonfire. I was pretty hungry, and the best she could do for food was NutriGrain bars. They were alright, but they certainly didn’t hit the spot like half a pizza or an omelette would have. I hung out there until 12:30 AM or so, and I don’t remember what happened after that, but it presumably involved sleep at some point.

Wednesday, August 04

I had a 7:15 AM meeting scheduled for that morning, but was notified around 6:45 that one of my bosses was MIA, so the meeting was canceled (abut the other 8:00 AM meeting was still on). I used the extra time to bike to the post office where a package was being held for me (a few miles the opposite direction of my work). When I finally got there, I was told the package was actually being held at another post office, another few miles out of my way. I was already tired of biking, and didn’t have loads of extra time, so I skipped that extra detour, and just headed in to work. It was horribly annoying to have wasted an entire morning/trip for nothing, but I know it was good exercise, so it wasn’t all bad.

Thursday, August 05

I don’t remember anything that really happened during the day on Thursday, but I know that I left work around 4:15 or so, because I had to go home and pack for my trip to visit Amanda (my girlfriend) in Michigan :-D. I left with Brad (friend from school, roommate for this upcoming year) Thursday around 6:30 for Iron Mountain, which is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I think we made the trip in about 5 hours (an hour less than the estimate we were given), and only drove past two turns (it was dark). I don’t think much happened after we got there, other than setting up beds (pull-out couch and futon mattress on the floor) and sleeping. It’s very hard to describe how nice it is to see one’s girlfriend for the first time in about a month, but sufficed to say, I was happy to see her.

Friday, August 06

I got my hair cut Friday morning.

This was not just any haircut, though. This was the first haircut of any kind I’d had in almost exactly one year, the first real haircut I’d willingly gone to since about 9th grade in High School, the first salon I’d ever willingly gone to, and the first haircut I’ve ever had decided by committee–that is, Amanda and Brad sat through the haircut and gave suggestions for what to do. It was a very…interesting…experience. They ended up gelling up my hair and such, which wasn’t what I was expecting, and I had no intention of maintaining that particular style, but I’m sure I said it was great anyway.

We went swimming, jet-skiing, tubing, and wake-boarding later that afternoon, which was pretty cool. We were at this kid’s house, that Amanda knows, who’s 15 or 16 or something, but he had a really killer drum set. My reputation preceded me, so the kid wanted me to play some, but I declined the opportunity since I haven’t played for ~2+ years. (Although I’ve yearned to play on several occasions, that wasn’t quite the situation I was looking for, to make my big come-back.) After we left, I think we went back to Amanda’s house for some burgers and corn, and then headed out to "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle." It was a pretty funny, in a pot-head/stupid sense. After the movie, we headed out to Walmart where I picked up some rockin’ aviator’s (sunglasses), and then swung by Little Ceaser’s for a $5 pizza (what a totally awesome deal, by the way).

Saturday, August 07

We got up Saturday morning and departed to Marquette, Michigan, which is an hour and a half north, or so, from Iron Mountain, but the drive went quickly. We spent pretty much the entire day hiking around the rocks/shore of Lake Superior. It’s quite beautiful, and I had a great time. It would seem that I’m either getting younger or older, though, because I got so tired after we got back into the car and drove for a while…I needed my afternoon nap ;).

At some point after we returned, we met up with Marissa (she was very proud of her free pants), and headed over to some local Battle of the Bands concert. A number of the bands sucked (the lead guitarist of one band even forgot how one of their songs went), but some had some good components. One band had a really good drummer, and another had a really awesome guitarist (whose guitar should have been louder), so I think there should be some reorganization to form a good band, but I have my doubts if anyone else will catch on to my genius plans. (The band with the really good guitarist won, since I’m sure you were all dying of curiosity.)

We went to some crappy party afterwards, where I didn’t know anyone other than the people I came with (perhaps due at least in part to the fact that I was two states away from my home and school…but who can really say for sure?). Brad was trying to get his thang on with Marissa, but got shut down, which made for an unhappy drunk Brad, but I think he went to bed pretty soon thereafter.

Sunday, August 08

We all slept in a bit on Sunday, but went out for brunch with Amanda’s mother and sister. We had a lengthy discussion about the regionally specific usage of the words cabin, camp, and cottage, to describe what everyone else (well, Minnesota, anyhow) just calls a cabin. After brunch, Amanda, Brad, and I went up to the top of the ski jump (the really tall kind, like they use in the Olympics) by her house. It was pretty sweet up there (and windy), but it’s too bad it was a bit hazy, so we couldn’t see as far as possible. I’ll live.

After that, we went to meet up with Autumn (another friend of Amanda), and then headed out to some woods/trails place. We hiked around for a while by a river with some rapids, and such. We actually hiked a ways in, but didn’t stay all that long. I think we kind of randomly drove around for a while, dropped Autumn back off at her house, ate some stuff, and went to a water-ski show. The highlights of that show were some pretty cool jumps, and two people who dressed up in a moose costume, and danced. (I have a picture of the moose, and video of the moose dance and some water-ski jumps.)

After the water-skiing show, we hooked back up with Autumn (now accompanied by two friends), and ended up going to Casey’s (some guy I don’t know) house to hang out. When I heard the name Casey, though, I could visualize Luke Wilson in that 70’s show as Casey Kelso, but I couldn’t put my finger on who it was, or what show it was (I thought it was a movie), at the time. It was quite frustrating, but damn, I finally figured it out! Anyway, Casey (the guy, not the character) was a cool enough guy…we watched some movie, talked, etc. We left around 11:45 or something, because Casey had to work the next morning (eeek, I have to work tomorrow morning, too), but headed back to Autumn’s house.

I’ll skip a bit, because I’m trying to wrap this up in the next eight minutes, but Autumn said she’d come visit us around the beginning of school, Brad wanted a hug from Amanda and me, we got some frozen pizza, and we went to bed.

Monday, August 09

We got up, packed, picked up some Subway (I’m only a couple sandwiches short of getting a free footlong :-D), and ate lunch at a beach with Autumn. Then Brad wanted to go to a dollar store to pick up some sunglasses, which ended up getting us stuck in the store for a while because it was raining horribly outside for quite a while (20′ visibility, perhaps?). Brad ran to the car first, and the proceeded to lock me out of the car for a bit, while I was standing in the pouring rain (thanks again, by the way). We left Michigan around 3:15, got back to my house around 8:15, ate some pizza, and Brad headed back down to Rochester, MN.

The rest

The rest of last week was kind of a blur, again (and I’m rushing to get to bed), but there are a few major points. I officially realized I’d spent over $20 in the soda machine at my work (gone through two $10 rolls of quarters, plus whatever else I’d put in), which was a nice milestone. I finished watching the entire series of Scrubs, which I’d started a week or two before. And lastly, I went to a movie with Betsy, my ex-girlfriend, and a mutual friend, Carley. I haven’t done anything with her since late last August, or so, shortly before we broke up, and we hadn’t talked a whole lot, either. I still feel pretty bad/sad about that whole situation from time to time (a few songs, in particular, are triggers), and as I told Amanda (after she asked me such a horribly baited/loaded question) I do still miss Betsy, so it was good to see her again, despite it being a bit awkward (for me, anyhow). It was a very random invitation, but it was nice.

Upcoming

Since I probably won’t get to this again for a while, I’ll try to fill in upcoming events.

I have a 7:45 AM meeting tomorrow (er, today…dammit!), then meeting with a friend in the evening, to order a computer, which I may or may not also "get" to assemble/install. Amanda (my girlfriend) is done with work after Thursday, so she’s coming to visit me for a weekend, starting Friday. I move back to my dorm on Sunday, August 29th, in the afternoon/evening (YES!), and the Scrubs season premier is Tuesday, August 31st (don’t miss it). That covers my schedule for the next few weeks. And no, I’m not giving up on blogging, I’m just being realistic by saying that I probably won’t post for a while ;-).

Enjoy. Let’s do something before I go back to school (my treat…maybe).